Dowdy-Ficklen turns 50 years old!

Dowdy-Ficklen turns 50 years old!

The East Carolina University Department of Athletics announced Friday the official launch of its Celebrating 50 Years of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Campaign designed to honor a landmark that has impacted the ECU campus and Greenville community, and provided decades of great moments and memories for generations of Pirate fans.

The 2013 season will mark the 50th anniversary of the facility, which opened its gates for the first time on Sept. 21, 1963 when 17,000 fans watched East Carolina defeat Wake Forest 20-10.

ECU will begin commemorating this milestone in late summer before engaging in an extensive schedule of promotions and activities the week of the opener against Old Dominion on Aug. 31. In addition to interactive elements and anniversary-specific retail merchandise, decade-based themes will be implemented for each of the six home games.

The season-long celebration includes:

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium 50th Anniversary LogoThe Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium 50th Anniversary logo features an exterior view of the stadium's most-recognizable northside double-deck. A purple banner, which includes Bagwell Field and the years of its existence, provides a base for a gold "50" that, in addition to serving as one of the school's two main colors, signifies the stadium's golden anniversary. The athletics department's primary pirate head mark is featured prominently at the top of the logo, while the secondary "ECU" is visible in the middle on one of the light standards. The logo will appear on retail products, concession items, online entities and throughout the stadium during the 2013 season.

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium 50th Anniversary Commemorative PrintsThe Pirate Club will be issuing "50 Years of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium" commemorative prints and certificates to qualifying Pirate Club members.

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium 50th Anniversary Season Ticket StockAll season ticket holders this year can look forward to commemorative ticket artwork. The Pirates' season tickets will cover five decades of the greatest moments and players in the stadium's history, matching the game-by-game themes above.

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium 50th Anniversary Fan EngagementSpecial game stories and features, along with exclusive videos, covering the last 50 years of Pirate Football inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium will be available on the Pirate Videoboard, in game programs and online at www.ECUPirates.com. In addition, fans will also be able to vote on their favorite moments, key plays, players and games via the department's official Twitter and Facebook pages. For Twitter users, a hashtag of #ECU50DFS has been established for the campaign.

Over seven million fans have seen the Pirates in action at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium since 1963, and in the last five years, ECU has averaged over 46,000 per game. Since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 that pushed the capacity to 50,000, the Pirates immediately set back-to-back school records in total attendance and season average attendance, breaking 2010 marks (297,987/49,665) with 300,069 and 50,012 figures in 2011.

East Carolina has turned in 37 winning season at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and owns an all-time record of 167-85-1 (.662) heading into the 2013 campaign.